Mira
Mira Fallegeros 'is a character introduced in the third season of ''Killer Instinct (2013). She's the fraternal twin sister of Maya, and a former member of the Night Guard who sacrificed herself years ago to save Maya during a botched mission slaying vampires, but has since returned as one of the very things they came to destroy. Now a member of a Russian Coven of vampires, Mira has become the favored lieutenant of an ancient vampire master known as the "True Tsar". Although a new character for KI 2013, the concept of a playable vampire dates back to the 1996 arcade game Killer Instinct 2, which would be realized twenty years later through Mira Fallegeros. Biography Appearance Mira has pale-white skin, gold eyes, and tied-back black hair. She wears a red scarf draped over her shoulders while her upper torso, shoulders, and arms are clad with spiked armor, with her most notable features in that regard being claw-like gauntlets on her hands and a large, multi-spiked pauldron on her right shoulder. Underneath her armor appears to be a belted corset of some kind and thigh-high leather boots. A tattered, red cloak is tied around her waist, held in place by a slightly arrow-shaped buckle. In her hair is a ruby scarab beetle-shaped hairpiece, and on each gauntlet is a black metal scarab which latches its claws into her arms before each battle. Her magical blood is shiny and silver, heavily resembling the liquid metal mercury. Mira's retro costume wears a black corset and a high thigh boots with purple accent, a black leather choker and long gloves. She also sports spiky red hair. Personality Prior to being turned into a bloodthirsty revenant, Mira, together with her sister Maya, was considered the best that the Night Guard had to offer. The fraternal twins were known for being as fearless as they were capable, and would dispatch monstrous creatures on their missions with ease. The human Mira appears to have cared deeply for her sister; something she demonstrated during their fateful mission in the Ural Mountains, when Mira selflessly sacrificed her life to allow her gravely wounded sister to escape the Coven. The Mira who has returned as a vampire is entranced by the dark powers she possesses, and is bound body and soul to the creatures that she came to kill. She is devoted to serving her master, a vampire lord known only as the "True Tsar", and has cast aside her humanity and standing with the Night Guard. The vampire Mira is sadistic, sanguinary and remorseless, ruthlessly eliminates any who defy the will of the True Tsar, and often toys with her victims in displays of perverse cruelty. When appeasing her dark lord, Mira doesn't allow anything to stand in her way—and that includes her sister. Mira has also developed a sense of overbearing superiority, shown in her exchanges with fellow Coven member Porfiry. The events of Shadow Lords reveal that the vampire's attachment to her fraternal twin isn't quite gone, however. When Maya had been captured by the forces of Gargos, Mira was offered untold power by the Astral tyrant in exchange for slaughtering Maya as the proof of her allegiance. The vampire duchess surprisingly rejected Gargos' offer, and chose to let Maya live (despite the True Tsar's mission to bring the Shadow Lord into the human world). One less happy explanation is that Mira may well have done this only because she seeks to destroy her former sister on her own terms. Abilities & Powers Mira is a highly skilled huntress who, like Maya, is well-versed in the predatory fighting techniques which are the hallmark of the Night Guard. As a vampire, however, Mira has also become a mistress of ancient blood magics. Her gauntlets, the Gloves of Rasavatham (a version of the Philosopher's Stone corrupted by the power of the True Tsar), have replaced her blood with a silvery liquid metal resembling the poisonous substance mercury, which she can unleash from her undead body and manipulate in a variety of supernatural attacks and abilities. The combination of Mira's training as a former member of the Night Guard and her powers as a vampire make her an exceptionally dangerous nightstalker, and the favored lieutenant of the True Tsar. Mira's blood magic, especially when amplified by her gauntlets, however isn't without a hidden cost. It drains portions of her "health" every time she uses her blood-based attacks, forcing her to constantly feast on her opponents' life energies in order to sustain herself. Killer Instinct (2013) background stage in ''Killer Instinct (2013)'']] Story A former member of the Night Guard, Mira Fallegeros is Maya's fraternal twin sister. The two grew up together and under their father's tutelage became the Night Guard's best team of hunters. On a mission to kill a group of vampires in the Siberian Mountains, Mira sacrifices herself to save Maya and seemingly perishes, but the vampires find her and convert her into one of their own, corrupting her and granting her a pair of gauntlets that allow her to tap into her newfound powers. '''Extended Story Novella Chapter 1 — The Road to Ravensburg: Chapter 4 — Conflux: Shadow Lords Irmá (1/2) - before fighting Maya Maya still burdens herself with foolish notions of good and evil. It falls to her sister, Mira, to teach her the joys of chaos. (2/2) - after fighting Maya Maya kneels before you, defeated. Her head is bowed and she will not look you in the eye. You toss Maya aside. Let this be a lesson to all who might think themselves worthy to oppose you and the Coven. Chaos rules while Mira walks the Earth! Thicker Than Water (1/2) - before fighting Tusk Mira has heard rumors of a mighty warrior by the name of Tusk. An alliance with such a powerful and ancient warrior could prove beneficial... (2/2) - after fighting Tusk To be added... Music Mira's theme, titled "Nocturne in Blood", was composed by Celldweller & Atlas Plug. It consists of a gothic opera sound (similar to the Castlevania series) mixed in with techno-rock, and includes a Russian violin choir & orchestra. Soprano singer Jeanette Vecchione performed the main vocals. When both combatants remain idle for a while using her theme in any stage, a remix of KI's main theme, "The Instinct", will start playing. Gallery KI Series = |-|KI Comics = Killer Instinct "Dynamite" Comics (2017) KI2017ComicsKimMira.jpg Miraalive.jpg|Mira Fallegeros, before The Coven turned her into a vampire Quotes Trivia *Another vampire character was originally created for ''Killer Instinct 2'', but the character was scrapped late into development. The name "Vampire" can still be found in the game's files. The vampire's stage theme, Bloodlust, however, was salvaged and made into the theme of Count Batula in Conker's Bad Fur Day. *One of the costumes available to Mira is the mask and hood of the Fable character Jack of Blades, a shout-out to another Microsoft game series. Another of her costumes is based on Gary Oldman's appearance as Count Dracula in the 1992 film [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Bram Stoker's Dracula]. Her 9th color of her standard skin may be a cultural reference to Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas or Beetlejuice in the titular film, both movies created by Tim Burton while the former was directed by his colleague Henry Selick. *Mira's "Trephine" special move is similar to Cammy of Street Fighter fame's "Spiral Arrow". **On a similar note, a trephine is a surgical tool with several modern day applications, such as collecting samples of bone and bone marrow, but it shares a root word with that of the ancient practice of trepanning--boring open the skull to release evil spirits. *Following Rash, Mira doesn't have her own stage in Killer Instinct (2013), but does have her own selectable theme for any stage. Interestingly, Mira shares Sabrewulf's Alchemical Lab as her stage in the game, likely as a placeholder in similarity to the situation with Omen sharing Shadow Tiger's Lair with Shadow Jago, and Kan-Ra sharing Forbidden Archive with Rash in Survival Mode. This makes her the third fighter in the roster who shares an arena with another combatant. **What's even more strange about her stage location, though its been established that Sabrewulf's stage fits more with her overall character, when playing Survival Mode she originally appeared on Jago's Tiger's Lair. One could imply her body might have actually been found at the ruins of the Tiger Temple, or she was in search hunting Jago for some unexplained reason. (Possible hint of her planning to summon Gargos at the Temple where Jago lies?). However, this was changed in later revisions of the game, as Mira now appears on Sabrewulf's stage in Survival Mode, but with her own theme playing instead of Sabrewulf's. **With the release of the Novella, her connection to Sabrewulf's stage is clarified; her business takes her to the von Sabrewulf family manor, where she inadvertently comes to blows with Sabrewulf while in pursuit of an artifact kept within. *Mira is the only character in Season 3 to be completely original, being neither a redesigned KI veteran nor a guest character from another franchise. *Mira is the last character to gain a teaser trailer, this was because Iron Galaxy wanted to keep the upcoming character secret until it's release. *Mira, as well as Maya, are also the third pair of characters who happen to be siblings among the roster, first being Jago and Orchid, and second being Thunder and Fulgore aka Eagle. **Interestingly, Mira has the exact same height, body shape, and degree of muscularity as Maya originally did during her appearance in Killer Instinct 2. **Mira also appears to share a few normal moves with Maya--the most easily recognized of which are her fierce punch and her Vicious Strikes command normal (b+HP). While possibly just recycled animations, this may also allude to her and her sister's origins as members of the Night Guard. *Mira's facial traits resemble bits of Kate Beckinsale as Selene from Underworld & Rayne from BloodRayne. *While mostly fluent in English, some of Mira's quotes have her speak in her native language of Portuguese, which is the same with her sister (as shown in the 6th chapter of the Novella), verifying that she and Maya are of a Pardo Brazilian background. ** However, she also speaks The Coven's primary language of Russian during some of her blood-based attacks, when activating her Instinct Mode, and in some of her personal quotes, confirming that she's trilingual. It is currently unknown if she learned it while she was growing up in the Night Guard or that it became part of her language repertoire when she became a vampire for The Coven. *** It likely could be the former as, during her mission to Sabrewulf's manor in the first chapter of the Novella, she understood languages such as Greek, Coptic, German, and Latin. This is mainly because the Night Guard is a secret society that spans many corners of the globe. * As revealed in her Extended Story, Mira, along with her sister, have their family's motto tattooed somewhere on their skin: "Sangue do Meu Sangue" (Portuguese for "Blood of My Blood"). While Mira does dislike her sister, she does still seemingly care about Maya when the situation is appropriate. as she put aside her hatred for her sister to defend her from Omen as seen in her story in Shadow Lords Mode. * However, she may have only done this because she wants to destroy Maya by her hands and not Gargos or Omen's. * Mira is strikingly similar to the newest rendition of the Mortal Kombat character Skarlet, another dark warrior who uses blood to create weapons. External links *Mira's character page at the official Killer Instinct Website *Mira's gameplay profile at Infil's The Complete Killer Instinct Guide Media *Mira's teaser - Mira's official teaser by Iron Galaxy *Mira's trailer - Mira's official trailer by Iron Galaxy *Creating The Music For Mira - Celldweller and Atlas Plug offer an exclusive look into how they created Mira's theme for KI 2013 *UA Bass (Mira) vs TS Hankhill (TJ Combo) - Video compilation of pro gamer matchups with Mira Category:Female Characters Category:Killer Instinct 2013 Characters Category:Characters Category:Evil Characters Category:Non-Human Characters